Plot & Concepts 2:
*note*
The idea had been changed quite drastically, this is because I thought the previous idea was too stale and don't really have anything much to play around with, so i added a supernatural element which I think should make the concept a lot more exciting and interesting.
*note*
The idea had been changed quite drastically, this is because I thought the previous idea was too stale and don't really have anything much to play around with, so i added a supernatural element which I think should make the concept a lot more exciting and interesting.
Genre: Supernatural Thriller Puzzle game-play
In game ideology
“The mind & soul produces certain chemical that lingers upon the
body’s disposal, this last moments of consciousness can be tapped with the
right method and apparatus, provided the body was never moved or tampered from
the spot where the incident had occurred, the more extreme the moment of death
is, the more memorable it became, thus leaving more distinct ‘stain’ and easier
to be tapped into; eg soldiers died in battle/ the fear induced in death by
torture.”
Prologue:
-
Julian arrived in a gothic looking mansion looking for his sister, Jewel,
who went missing.
-
After exploring the mansion and discovering that he is able to ‘dive’
into a corpse’s last moments before they die, Julian freaked out and tried to
escape
-
Only to find out that the bridge connecting from the mansion ground
to the ‘outside world’ had been destroyed, someone is trying to keep him in.
-
Without any options left (dialing for help doesn’t work due to
signal absence) Julian explores the Mansion to find traces of his sister
through puzzles & corpses and finally stumbled upon a secret lab (The
Abyss).
-
The plot thickens….
Full Plot:
-
At the beginning of the game, Julian discovered he is a ‘Diver’ and
is able to tap into dead people’s last moments and uncover some information and
memories from them (in forms of puzzles & action sequences), there are 7 (reference
to original game) main boss fights (Dying Memories) throughout the story
involving 7 people that died in peculiar ways (elemental) throughout the
mansion.
-
It turns out that Jewel & Julian both are part of a project
created by a conglomerate, Seth Haissem, who hired scientist and occultist to
research upon this ability to tap into people’s Dying Memories (justified by
his reasons of understanding how world war soldiers died/ spies/ historical
figures and make the world a better place) The only difference is, Jewel
volunteered for the project (although she got reluctant after knowing people
are killed for this project) & Julian was entirely clueless.
-
At the end of the game, Jewel was accidentally killed by Seth in the
secret lab, which triggered the full ability of Julian’s dive, he managed to
tap into his sister’s memories (not just her last moments) and find out ways to
stop Seth and kill him and also escapes from the place.
-
The ending shows how Julian manage to carry Jewel all the way out of
the Canyon and collapsed out of exhaustion (died) on a field overlooking the
mansion which is now in flames.
-
After credit roll, an unknown figure came towards the now deceased
Jewel and Julian and tapped into his Dying Memories. (new game+)
Game-play mechanics:
-
Maneuvering around is divided into 2 sections E&E (Exploring
& Examining.)
-
Exploring allows player to control Julian in Third-Person view and
move around the page by page environment (mostly), usually in areas connecting
from one place to another like hallways, path, etc.
-
Examining changes the view into first-person, usually when entering
a room or examining object of interest.
-
There are occasional QTE (Quick Time Events) that occurs throughout
the game (usually involving traps) success leads to progression of the game and
failure means starting all over from previous checkpoint or simply retries on
the same QTE (depending on how serious the event is).
-
Puzzles are abundant throughout and they are usually solved
interactively; point & click, tap, drag, shake, etc.
-
Dying Memories comes in form of everything above ( E&E, QTE,
Puzzles) and usually QTEs comes after tapping into Dying Memories. Also as
Julian ‘dives’ into people’s memory, he will start and end the scene as that
person, but gameplay will still be as Julian.
-
To die in Dying Memory (no matter how paradoxical it sounded) just
meant that an attempt of diving into the memory failed, after a third failed
attempt, it gets blurry (memory unstable), however it will be easier to pass
through.
-
Cut-scenes are in a form of animation that occurs in certain parts
of the plot.
Meanings & metaphors:
- Jewel represents the treasure that everyone (Seth and Julian) is
looking for, precious to Seth because he thought she’s the only ‘Diver’ he
knows & precious to Julian because they’re siblings.
-
7 main ‘bosses’ that died in a certain way represents the 7 elements
of the world that will play quite a big part in the storyline. Fire, Water,
Void, Wind, Earth, Light & Dark, they will die according to their
represented elements; for example water element ‘boss’ died by drowning in a
tank and Earth element died impaled on a tree.
-
‘Dying Memory’ system is heavily influenced by Demon Souls &
Dark Souls online experience, whereby players are able to touch other players
‘bloodstains’ and observe how they die and learn about nearby traps or ambush,
etc.
example of bloodstains gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daToWE2sgGo&feature=related
The idea of ‘Diving’ came form an old JRPG (Japanese Role Playing
Game) called Alundra, who is a ‘Dreamwalker’ and able to enter people’s dreams
in forms of dungeons to liberate them from nightmares.
concept of dreamwalking
